Knicks Matchup Overhyped

Both Coaches Downplay Rivalry

January 28, 1998|By ROBES PATTON Staff Writer

MIAMI — Though the stage has been set for a robust rematch, players and coaches have attempted to shift tonight's Knicks-Heat game away from center stage.

``Sometimes we're shocked when something is hyped and doesn't live up to it. We need to get a win and not worry about anything else,'' Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy said Tuesday. ``Both teams are coming off disappointing losses [Monday night) and need to get back on track.''

Said Heat coach Pat Riley, ``We're trying to keep things in perspective. I know it's newsworthy, obviously. Our perspective is that we got hit [Monday) night because we didn't play the game that we're capable of playing . . . we've got to get certain things right before we can talk about any heated great game.''

The Heat stumbled to a 94-93 home loss to the Cavaliers on Monday night when it failed to execute precisely in the waning moments. Farther north in Boston, the Knicks lost to the second-to-last-place Celtics for the first time in 22 meetings.

But it isn't a couple of Monday night losses that make this an intriguing game .

Former Knicks coach Riley oversees the Heat and still riles some in New York. The Knicks are without the injured Patrick Ewing, but burly Charles Oakley and Larry Johnson are healthy as are Heat big men P.J. Brown, Alonzo Mourning and Isaac Austin.

Most of all, memories remain vivid from the Heat's 4-3 elimination of the Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals last spring.

Those factors all contribute to setting up tonight's Heat-Knicks showdown at Miami Arena and on national television as more than your average late January NBA tussle.

Oh, not to be forgotten, the Heat leads the Atlantic Division by two games over, who else?, the New York Knicks.

With a rematch set for Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks, if victorious twice against the Heat, could move into first place and further their homecourt hopes for the playoffs. On the South Florida side of the equation, two victories over the Knicks would lift sagging Heat morale and provide a push toward the upper homecourt hand should these teams meet again in the postseason.

And that homecourt can be key, as the Heat and Knicks both know.

Last spring, the Heat became the sixth team in NBA history to rally from a 3-1 deficit in a seven-game playoff series. Among the defining moments of that series was Game 5's controversy (in Miami) when Knicks guard Charlie Ward on a free throw rebound charged too low for Brown's liking and found himself spinning into the front row courtesy of the Heat forward.

Subsequent suspensions cost the Knicks more dearly than the Heat, which lost only Brown compared to Ward, Ewing, Johnson, Allen Houston and John Starks.

In Game 7 on the Heat's homecourt, Johnson and Starks served their one-game suspensions; the Heat had forced a seventh game with a 95-90 victory in New York that featured Alonzo Mourning scoring 28 points against the Ewingless Knicks.

Many of the NBA's best rivalries are brought to a boil by playoff encounters, while the regular-season series serves to add early sizzle.

Riley and others attempted to downplay tonight's game, though Heat guard Tim Hardaway did say, ``It's going to be very heated and it's going to be a tough ballgame.''

Maybe so, but Riley, who can't help but be the primary personality in any Heat-Knicks matchup, contended that contention makes a difference.

``The glamour of New York and Miami, what is that all about? After two years, you'd think you'd get over it,'' he said. ``We're not the teams contending. There are other teams that are contending. But people have a tendency to think we're the contending teams. It has nothing to do with last year. It's the old this year-last year theory. Last year's over with, done, finished. There's a whole different set of circumstances this year.''

Primarily, the Knicks are without Ewing, the perennial All-Star who underwent season-ending wrist surgery in December.

Ewing is a close friend of Heat center Mourning and Riley often speaks fondly of his former center.

Van Gundy, whose brother Stan is a Heat assistant coach, appeared to agree with Riley on the not-quite-contenders theme.

``For us to focus on Miami to shoot for or at, we're doing the wrong thing. We're not going to focus on any team,'' he said. ``We need to focus on our team. If you're going to shoot for greatness, you look at a team like Chicago and how often they've been able to get it done.''